This entry in the Collective Biographies series covers major players in the development of the computer, from Herman Hollerith, the inventor of punch cards, through the inventors of ENIAC and UNIVAC, as well as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Marc Andreessen of Netscape. Each section, approximately ten pages long, briefly profiles the subject's early life, then moves on to cover their contribution to the industry. While some of the information about their personal lives seems irrelevant, the details of their development as inventors and creators are fascinating, as is the coverage of what they accomplished. The writing is clear and not overly technical, and Northrup remains noncommittal regarding, for example, the anti-trust problems of Bill Gates, or the well-publicized ouster of Steve Jobs from Apple: ""Amid a power struggle, Jobs left."" Still, this is an intriguing look at some of the men (and one woman, Grace Hopper, who contributed to the development of COBOL) who helped create the high-tech world.